South Coast Tuna
Submitted by Jaaayoo on Thu, 2014-03-20 03:16
G'day all. Long time, first time.
Shortly returning to WA after an extended period in the Eastern states mainly Victoria, where one of the prime fisheries was the annual run of SBT out of towns like Portland and Port Mac SA. A quick glance at the map shows the shelf running along Albany at about the same distances. Pretty sure that these tuna migrate all along the Southern Ocean
does that mean the south coast WA gets these same fish. I really haven't heard anything from over here. Anyone?
scottnofish
Posts: 1621
Date Joined: 28/08/07
we do get SBT
WA but just not the sizes you get over east and SA most fish you will encounter here will be sub 10kg you will also encounter striped tuna and yellow fin tuna around the perth area with the yelow fin being the only ones that will get bigger than 10 kg, personaly i think that the small tuna are pushed here by the currents and work there way east as they grow into the barrels you can catch in NSW
smicko
Posts: 135
Date Joined: 11/04/10
Try telling that to the
Try telling that to the commercials that fish SBT's and swordies off our south coast. There's plenty of big SBT's down there, it's just scary water is all. No place for a rec boat.
jay91
Posts: 50
Date Joined: 02/02/12
longtail tuna
In the last few recent years we have been getting runs of decent size (some +20kg) longtail tuna off the rocks here around perth
Jaaayoo
Posts: 11
Date Joined: 16/03/14
Any idea on the sizes and
Any idea on the sizes and numbers Smicko? As for the water can't see it being much different to SW Vic where we fish for them well into July with a potentially earlier season in the west as the fish do seem to pass through Port Lincoln and KI before here. Good thing about this style of fishing is unless it's life threatening it's fishable. And if these are the same fish I can't believe they would see such growth in that period. More digging and maybe a few recon trips methinks. cheers
Bluetonic
Posts: 1147
Date Joined: 09/01/08
I fished on a longline tuna
I fished on a longline tuna boat many moons ago and can tell you there are plenty of bigger Bluefin Tuna off the WA south coast. Some years currents with the correct water temp push closer to shore and make for opportunistic fishing for this species, unfortunately not many amateur fisherman are out there targeting them.
Smaller BFT migrate south down the WA coast and head round the corner to SA growing bigger as they go but also if the currents that flow from the bottom of South Africa are flowing our way then larger BFT can be found in our waters south. These are the fish that hang in the southern waters all the time.
Blue Sky, Blue Water, Bluetonic!